A teacher entered the class and said, "Today we will play a game that you all enjoyed in your childhood." While saying that she displayed two images on the screen.
As soon as they saw the two images everyone got excited. Their favorite game of finding the difference was on display.
The teacher then said, "Today you will play this game differently. You will not look for differences but you will focus on finding similarities."
One of the students asked, "How many similarities should we find? They both look almost similar."
Another student argued by saying, "Finding the difference is more exciting but finding the similarities does not sound appealing."
Another student said, "If we start counting similarities who will be the winner."
The argument continued.
Finally, the teacher asked, "What have you learned?"
All the students went quiet until one spoke. The student said:
#1 - When I count differences, I compete and want to win. I forget to look for other things that can make me happy. I think about how different am I from others and how can I beat others. When I count similarities, I appreciate everyone and everything, and instead of winning the game, I focus on playing the game well.
#2 - If I look for differences there will be a handful of them. If I look for similarities there are unlimited similarities that exist between all of us. I always have a choice to focus on what I want, differences or similarities.
#3 - We are trained to look for differences but rarely are we told to enjoy the similarities. Both are equally important.
